This invention relates to the field of interactive media systems, and particularly to a system for converting media content for interactive TV use.
Technological development is fostering an increasing convergence of television, multimedia programming, and computers. The creation of a world-wide information infrastructure will support the viewing of motion pictures, multimedia programs, and newscast events on demand. It will provide access to telecommunications networks, databases, and information services over long distances, as well as facilitate the instantaneous exchanging of governmental, business, research, institutional, medical, and personal data, and teleconferencing and sharing of documents and information among organizations, workgroups, and individuals spread out over wide areas. The entry point for users to this information infrastructure is principally the interactive use of a visual display interface to the system.
Content is essential to the value users derive from use of the system. While much of the content being offered is newly created to take advantage of the latest developments in technology, there is a vast base of existing content that is non-interactive which users may desire to have access to, particularly media content in the form of movies, videos, video advertising, television programming, etc. However, if existing media content is merely offered as a digitized equivalent of its existing form, then there is little or no value added over obtaining the same content through the current media in which it is offered. The conversion of existing media content to interactive digital media adds value by rendering it capable of interactivity and linking to other forms of digital media.
The conversion of media content to interactive digital media use has heretofore been a laborious process as conversion tools have required developers to perform conversion tasks essentially manually. Many types of hyperlinking tools have been developed for rendering text and graphics materials xe2x80x9clivexe2x80x9d for interactive use, e.g., as discussed in Multimedia and Hypertext, edited by Jakob Nielson, published by Academic Press, Inc., 1995. Typically, a link is created between a word, phrase, icon, image, or other object appearing in the display to another text file (hypertext) or to another program or media function (hypermedia) to deepen the user""s engagement in the system. Thus, when a user clicks with a pointing device such as a mouse on an object appearing in the screen display, an interactive media program will pull up another file or perform another function so as to provide the user with further information, response, or options. A series of hyperlinks may be followed to allow the user to pursue a subject to any desired depth or relational complexity. Such hyperlinking tools have found valuable use for online documentation, user assistance, interactive manuals, graphical operating systems, information retrieval, auditing and tracking systems, authoring systems, games, audiovisual programs, edutainment programs, etc.
However, conventional hyperlinking tools require the developer to embed linking codes or xe2x80x9canchorsxe2x80x9d manually in the content file which is to be rendered interactive. For example, if the content is a voluminous collection of xe2x80x9cpagesxe2x80x9d to be displayed to the user, such as for an electronic encyclopedia, then conversion would require a large amount of time for the developer to embed hyperlinking codes around each text object for each page of content. A current candidate for a universal language for marking documents and embedding hyperlinking codes is called Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). A multimedia extension to SGML known as HyTime has been accepted by the International Standards Organization (ISO) for marking of documents which may incorporate audio and video media. However, even when such hyperlinking tools are used for media content, such as a digitized video sequence, the marking of the sequence for xe2x80x9clivexe2x80x9d interactive use is currently accomplished by embedding hyperlinking codes around the object in each frame of the sequence (typically 30 frames per second for full motion sequence).
Digital video editing tools have also been developed for painting, coloring, sizing, altering, or otherwise editing still and motion images, compositing multiple images, text, and sound tracks together, animating and morphing images, compressing multimedia files for storage or transmission, etc. However, almost all such digital media editing tools require alteration of the underlying raw content file in order to create a new digital media content file. In most cases, conventional editing tools embed proprietary codes or use proprietary file formats to modify or re-specify an existing content file. As a result, the edited media file can only be run on compatible systems or platforms that have complementary display, playback, or decompression tools.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a system for allowing media content, particularly a broad base of existing media content, to be used in interactive media programs. A specific object is to convert media content for interactive TV use without locking it in to any particular delivery system or display platform, i.e., without embedding proprietary codes in the original media content. It is a further object to provide an authoring system for developing interactive media programs from existing media content using automated tools which can reduce the development time.
In accordance with the main object of the present invention, a system for allowing media content to be used as an interactive media program comprises: (a) media content in the form of media data representing a series of successive image display frames indexed in a time sequence; (b) object mapping data specifying display locations of objects appearing in the image display frames of the media content which are to be rendered interactive: (c) linkages provided through an associated interactive media program from the objects specified by the object mapping data to respective interactive functions to be performed upon user selection of the objects in conjunction with a display of the media content; and (d) a user system for operating the interactive media program in conjunction with the display of the media content by selecting an object appearing in one or more image display frames using said object mapping data specifying its display location in the image display frames and performing the interactive function linked by the corresponding linkage of the interactive media program thereto.
In accordance with the specific object of this invention, the object mapping data representing the display locations of the interactive objects are maintained physically and logically separate from the media content data. The media content is thus kept intact and uncorrupted by any embedded special codes, so that it can be delivered and displayed on any media delivery system or display platform. The object mapping data are preferably in a standard display location definition format so that they can be used in a wide variety of interactive media programs.
In accordance with a further object of the invention, an authoring system comprises: (a) an editing subsystem for editing media content in the form of media data representing a series of successive image display frames indexed in a time sequence; (b) an object mapping subsystem for generating object mapping data specifying display locations of objects appearing in the image display frames of the media content which are to be rendered interactive; (c) interactive media program development tools including a hyperlinking tool for establishing linkages from the objects specified by the object mapping data to respective interactive functions to be performed upon user selection of the objects in conjunction with a display of the media content; and (d) said object mapping subsystem having an object mapping tool for defining the display location of an object to be rendered interactive by marking the position of the object as it appears in an image display frame. The object mapping subsystem may further include a motion tracking tool for defining the display locations for an object in motion across successive image display frames by marking the position of the object as it appears in a first image display frame and detecting the positions of the object over subsequent image display frames.
In a preferred interactive TV system, media content, in the form of movies, TV programs, advertising, and the like, can be presented as interactive media programs by transmitting media content data and object mapping data for interactive objects (xe2x80x9chot spotsxe2x80x9d) to a TV set top box connected to a viewer""s TV. The TV set top box may be of the advanced type having digital processing components for running a high-level interactive media program in conjunction with analog or digital (e.g., HDTV) video content through a two-way high-bandwidth cable connection and performing high-level interactive functions such as linking hot spots in the TV content to Internet addresses and displaying related pages on the World Wide Web simultaneously with the TV content.
Interactive TV programs of a lower level of interactivity can also be presented using a conventional TV set top box and remote control in conjunction with the current analog video content. For example, the analog video content may be transmitted to the viewer on a channel provided by a cable TV company, with the object mapping data and program linkages for interactive functions transmitted in the video blanking intervals (VBI) interleaved with the video frames. Alternatively, the object mapping data and interactive program linkages may be transmitted to the viewer""s set top box via a different channel, an available side band of the assigned cable TV spectrum, or through a telephone line, cable modem, or other transmission link connected to the set-top box. The set top box processor uses the object mapping data to highlight the display of interactive objects appearing in the TV content and to perform an interactive function when the viewer toggles through the highlighted objects and presses a control key to select a particular object. The hot spots may be not only image objects appearing in the original TV content, but also non-image objects such as pop-ups, and/or buttons overlaid on the TV content as enhanced media content. Thus, a broad base of existing TV content can be rendered as interactive entertainment even with the conventional cable TV system.
The present invention is described in greater detail below, together with its further objectives, features and advantages, in conjunction with the following drawings: